Rolando Hermes Cerda Bustillos
Researcher and Professor, Coordinator of the Unit Agroforestry and Breeding of Coffee and Cacao
Bio
Rolando Cerda is agronomist engineer (UMSA, Bolivia), with a master in Ecological Agriculture and Agroforestry (CATIE, Costa Rica), and Ph.D. in Ecological and Agronomic Sciences (SupAgro, France). Dr. Cerda is a researcher and professor of the postgraduate school in CATIE, specialist in agroforestry systems with perennial crops (coffee, cocoa, homegardens and others). He has worked in several projects of research and development at regional levels. He coordinated the development of farmer field schools, aiming to reach more than 10.000 rural families in Central America. He developed research on the assessment of multiple ecosystem services (provisioning, regulation of pests and diseases, soil quality, carbon sequestration) for the design/management of sustainable agroforestry systems. He also participated in studies on the evaluation of carbon footprint and carbon balance of production systems. He has experience also in studies of identification, evaluation, prioritization and promotion of climate smart agriculture practices (aiming at production, adaptation and mitigation) for homegardens, agroforestry systems including silvopastoral, and basic grains. He has several scientific publications for the scientific community, and also publications for technicians and farmers.